When construction companies initially started to adopt mobile technologies like tablets and smartphones, there was a race between many construction technology companies to be the future leader in the area. As the years rolled on, it became less and less likely that one app was going to be the end-all-be-all, like AutoCAD became in the architectural design world. There’s not one app out there right now that provides every single function that a construction company needs, because each company is very unique. The solution? Integration.

One-Tap Navigation

Moving from double-tap to single-tap seems like a small upgrade, but allows for a much cleaner experience, especially on touch devices. This functionality is currently available on iOS, but it’s coming soon to Android, as well.

Faster Sheet Publishing

There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for your documents to load, it kills your momentum and keeps you from working on other tasks. PlanGrid is promising 10 times faster sheet publishing with their update that’s scheduled to be released across all platforms over the next 3 weeks.

The update will not only help speed, but it also offers improved accuracy on title block detection and offers bulk editing actions.

via PlanGrid

Push Notifications

Having a system to upload documents is great, but if nobody knows the documents have been updated, they don’t really do much good. Searching through many folders looking for updates is also a huge waste of time. Over the next two weeks, PlanGrid customers will have the ability to send app notifications automatically to relevant team members when new documents are uploaded.

Mobile 360 Degree Photos

One of our recent guest blogs discussed how 360 degree images take construction documentation to the next level and I have to say I agree. It’s so frustrating trying to sift through hundreds of photos looking for the one you need and the information you’re looking for is just out of frame. With 360 degree photos, everything is in context, so you know exactly what room you’re in and what you’re looking at. PlanGrid’s 360 Photo abilities are available to use now across all mobile platforms.

Software Integrations

PlanGrid is offering integration with 4 new apps to keep the apps that your company uses available in one place. Integration between different apps is a great way to truly harness all of the data and documentation your company is gathering. Among the new app integrations are CMiC, Dronomy, EarthCam, and eSUB.

In what has become a popular trend for construction technology leaders, Procore recently held their yearly Groundbreak construction technology conference in Austin, TX from November 13-15. These yearly conference allow companies to reach a core of their user base and announce their past and future enhancements, in addition to performing hands-on training sessions with product experts. Construction Junkie was in attendance for this year’s Gorundbreak and we’ve got you covered with all the details.

This week, Procore held their annual construction technology conference called Groundbreak in Austin, TX. Through a series of keynote speeches and breakout sessions, Procore announced their latest releases and plans for the future. I was in attendance this week and I’ll have a full recap of the event coming soon. One of the company’s biggest announcements at this year’s Groundbreak was the release of a new product called Design Coordination, for Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) teams.

CAT phones has made our headlines in recent years by matching their rugged design with a suite of features that no other phone can match, like the built-in thermal imaging, laser measure, and humidity and VOC sensors that the Cat S61 has. Those past phones have been unlocked and compatible with certain networks of the user’s choosing, but their latest release is starting out only available on the Sprint Network.

It’s been a long time coming, but the world’s first 3D printed steel bridge has passed all of its required testing and is ready to be installed. But, before it gets to its final home, it will go on a short publicity tour.

Tracking your construction project’s submittals and their approval status can be a tedious and frustrating process, but thankfully several project management applications are helping solve that issue with technology. At the beginning of this year, PlanGrid announced the release of an automatic submittal log creator tool, which scans through your project’s specification book and creates a trackable log of each submittal. The company has recently added several new features to make the Submittal platform, which allows users to manipulate the submittal log, even more useful.

I’ve mentioned this several times before, but the single greatest thing technology companies can do for the construction industry is to allow cross-platform integration. That’s essentially what construction is at its core, anyway, a bunch of different entities working together for a common goal. Autodesk’s BIM 360, which already integrates 60+ different softwares into its platform, has recently added NoteVault to its list.

When we’ve talked about construction robotics in the past, it’s mostly been about really large machines working on exterior structures, like this brick-laying robot, or this self-driving track loader. A technology institute in Japan is busy working towards bringing robotics to the interior finish side of the construction world with the development of a drywall installing robot.

PlanGrid users may have noticed, or been frustrated with that fact, that some features that are available on the program’s Android and iOS apps are not available on the Windows app. Windows’ Surface tablets have become a popular option for construction teams in recent years, so those users will be happy to hear that the Field Reports function is now available on PlanGrid for Windows.

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